Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

The House is suing the Obama administration, saying subsidies the health law provides to insurers are illegal because the legislation is appropriating money without congressional approval. Donald Trump will be able to drop the lawsuit when he's sworn into office, but if he does, it could spell quick disaster for the marketplace.

The Associated Press:
Trump's Path On Health Care Law Intersects With A Lawsuit
President-elect Donald Trump says he wants to preserve health insurance coverage even as he pursues repeal of the Obama-era overhaul that provided it to millions of uninsured people. How his administration handles a pending lawsuit over billions of dollars in insurance subsidies will reveal whether Trump wants an orderly transition to a Republican-designed system or if he'd push "Obamacare" over a cliff. Stripping away the subsidies at issue in the case would put the program into a free-fall. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/16)

In other national health care news —

The New York Times:
Expect Medicaid To Change, But Not Shrivel, Under Donald Trump
The expansion of Medicaid, a central pillar of the Affordable Care Act, faces immense uncertainty next year, with President-elect Donald J. Trump and top Republicans in Congress embracing proposals that could leave millions of poorer Americans without health insurance and jeopardize a major element of President Obama’s legacy. But influential figures in surprising quarters of the new administration might balk at a broad rollback of Medicaid’s reach, favoring new conditions for access to the government insurance program for the poor but not wholesale cutbacks. (Pear, 11/15)

The Wall Street Journal:
On Republicans’ Path To Health-Law Repeal, Questions Emerge
Ascendant Republicans who have put a repeal of the Affordable Care Act at the top of their to-do list face a set of early, key decisions that will test the party’s consensus on the issue. Among them: How much of the 2010 health law to strike early on, how soon and how closely to work with Democrats in shaping a replacement, and how much leeway to give consumers who might be caught without coverage in between a repeal and a new law. Lawmakers who weren’t necessarily expecting Donald Trump to win the presidency now see they can move ahead more boldly on the health law than they anticipated. (Radnofsky and Armour, 11/15)

Stat:
The Players Who Are Set To Influence Trump On Health Care
It’s customary in the nation’s capital to hail members of the incoming administration by telling everyone in town how close you are to them. So many in conservative Washington lobbying circles and elsewhere are busy touting their relationships with President-elect Donald Trump and his advisers. There’s a benefit to proximity to power, especially now. At a time when nobody really knows how the Trump administration will regulate drugs and medical devices, fund scientific research, or repeal or replace the Affordable Care Act, relationships with the newcomers are viewed as critical to getting one’s issues on the table. (Kaplan, 11/15)

Los Angeles Times:
Trump Used To Rail Against Drug Prices. Now The Industry's Allies Are Helping Shape His Agenda
Donald Trump and his congressional allies are making big plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act and overhaul other government health programs. But the president-elect appears to have downgraded plans to act aggressively to control rising drug prices, handing the pharmaceutical industry an early victory and providing another illustration of the influence of lobbyists on the new Trump administration, despite Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” of special interests in Washington. (Levey, 11/15)

The Associated Press:
GOP Governors Hope To Move Fast On Making Promised Changes
Republicans are still celebrating their election victories, but the country's GOP governors warned this week that they need to move fast on many of the changes that have been promised to voters. ... Most of the GOP governors mentioned health care when discussing their top priorities. But it became evident they are not in complete agreement on how to unwind President Barack Obama's health care overhaul that included an expansion of Medicaid, the nation's main safety net health care program for the poor. (Fineout, 11/16)

This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.